NEW YORK, March 31, 1997 — Insurance professionals can now get earthquake-hazard information about a specific address from Insurance Services Office, Inc. (ISO).
This address-specific information, which insurers use to evaluate earthquake-related coverages, is available online through ISO's Geographic Underwriting System (GUS). The information is delivered electronically in less than five seconds to an insurer's PC.
To evaluate large numbers of risks for earthquake exposure, insurers may use ISO's economical batch processing.
The GUS earthquake reports are succinct information using ISO's earthquake risk index that indicates the particular risk of damage at a given site. In addition, the ISO report provides a relative hazard percentile that compares the earthquake hazard at a specific site with earthquake hazards at other locations in the county, state and country.
GUS technology also provides detailed information on the local soil type, covering the risk of ground failure such as land slide and soil liquefaction in the event of an earthquake — including a worst-case event. GUS also identifies the five closest faults, highlighting those that are the most serious. GUS uses the Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) scale to show a site's probability of exceeding certain earthquake intensities in a 30-year period.
The GUS earthquake information is based on Insurance and Investment Risk Assessment System (IRASTM), a computerized catastrophe model developed by Risk Management Solutions, Inc. of Menlo Park, Calif.
GUS also provides ISO's earthquake zones and the California Department of Insurance Zones.
For more information about GUS's earthquake capabilities, and all the other instantaneous risk-specific underwriting information that GUS provides, contact ISO's customer service department at 1-800-888-4476.
GUS is a registered trademark of Vista Information Solutions, Inc.,and is licensed exclusively to ISO. IRAS is a registered trademark of Risk Management Solutions, Inc.
Release: Immediate
Contacts:
Giuseppe Barone / Erica Helton
MWW Group (for ISO)
201-507-9500
gbarone@mww.com / ehelton@mww.com